CHAPTER VII 



THE AFFORESTATION OF WATER CATCHMENT AREAS 



The afforestation of water catchment areas is a hygienic 

 measure as well as a means of increasing the timber reserves 

 of the nation, as will be shown after some preliminary 

 observations on the water supply of our great municipalities. 

 Some towns get their water supply from large rivers, as 

 London from the Thames and Aberdeen from the Dee. 

 Other towns are supplied by springs, wells, and deep borings 

 of various kinds. The third method, which specially 

 concerns us, is that of catchment reservoirs, constructed to 

 impound the water falling on upland and sparsely peopled 

 tracts. Siich gathering grounds in the Pennine range 

 supply most of the great centres of population in 

 Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Derbyshire. Other catchment 

 areas are situated in Wales, Cornwall, and a few other 

 districts in England, and in many parts of Scotland. 

 Natural lakes, often made larger by artificial dams, as 

 Loch Katrine used by Glasgow and Thirlmere by Manchester, 

 are in the same category as artificial reservoirs, and like 

 these derive their water supply from the drainage of the 

 surrounding watersheds. 



In many cases the water authorities have only leased 

 the water rights and have not acquired the ownership of 

 the gathering grounds. For the prevention of pollution 

 of the water, they have relied mainly on the 61st Section of 

 the Waterworks Clauses Act of 1847, which makes it penal 

 to lead sewage into, or wantonly to defile, the reservoirs 

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